Australia-US customs to share intelligence

Australia will boost its intelligence sharing with the United States customs and border protection service, despite the recent high-profile leaks of Australian intelligence activities by US agencies.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian and US customs and border protection agencies have agreed to a formal strategic partnership from 2014, which will see two Australian officers posted to the US to strengthen intelligence cooperation.

Mr Morrison said a trial of the closer engagement over the past year led to a crackdown on organised crime and resulted in several major drug seizures.

"These results demonstrate that governments must work together to effectively combat transnational crime and terrorism," he said in a statement on Thursday.

The move to strengthen intelligence sharing with the US comes after a former United States National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked thousands of secret documents, including details of how Australian spies targeted the phone of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Details of conversations between Australian politicians and US Embassy staff have also been made public over the past two years after they were leaked to the Wikileaks organisation.